INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS — SHOCKTOBER!

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ColeSmithey.comBy far the best version in the franchise, Philip Kaufman’s venerable revamping of Don Siegel’s 1956 black-and-white sci-fi horror classic delved deeper into nitty-gritty details of a pod-induced mass transformation of humans into emotionless doppelgangers.

In so doing, Kaufman gave his movie the visual lift it needed to instill palpable dread and fear in an audience that didn’t know what hit them.   

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The filmmakers use a recurring image system of spider-web similes, which act as a unifying filter of discord. San Francisco has been turned upside-down over night. Everything is different. Garbage collectors are busy on every street collecting the grey fuzzy waste from swapped-out bodies.

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Donald Sutherland plays San Francisco health inspector Matthew Bennell with a cozy sense of paternal confidence that makes him seem immune to anything that could possibly usurp his empathetic soul. Civilization’s sudden loss of compassion to a population of cold conspiratorial aliens, incapable of something as simple as laughter, proves a terrifying idea when played out to its logical extreme.

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Casting Donald Sutherland in the lead role proved to be a coup for Kaufman. Strains of Sutherland’s iconic performance in Nicholas Roeg’s deeply disturbing psychological thriller “Don’t Look Now” (1973) carried over into "Body Snatchers."

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Thematically, the film’s allegory regarding viral-groupthink has plenty of wiggle-room for interpretation because it is so profoundly vague yet universal. It’s easy to imagine authority figures such as police and politicians inhabited by aliens, because they so frequently express an utter disregard for the value of human life in favor of corporate profits for the one-percent.

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A significant genre-imposed rule of the movie is that its characters can’t fall sleep lest they succumb to possession. Doing so enables one of the recently arrived pods-from-space to produce an exact physical replica that will come to life after sucking the subject’s body dry of its meat, bones, and brains.

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Matthew Bennell’s health department co-worker Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) notices a change in her husband. She alerts Matthew to her concerns just as it seems society has begun to flip. A man in a business suit inexplicably sprints through traffic.

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Kaufman sets his audience’s teeth on edge with an inventive soundscape, involving things like heartbeats. Sounds move between the film’s Dolby Stereo format, making the audience feel as if the action is taking place around them.

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Kaufman’s remake gets cameo endorsements from Don Siegel, and from Kevin McCarthy, the lead actor from the original "Body Snatchers" movie. Siegel plays a pod-changed cab driver taking Matthew and Elizabeth for a little ride. Kevin McCarthy’s character is the same as in Segel’s movie except that he seems even more desperate now.

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Philip Kaufman's “Body Snatchers” is famous for a couple of offbeat scenes that you hardly believe when you’re seeing them.

Not Rated. 80 mins. 5 Stars ColeSmithey.comCozy Cole

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November 14, 2023

SAM NOW

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ColeSmithey.comDocumentarian Reed Harkness follows his half-brother Sam on a life-altering odyssey to find Sam's mother Jois, who inexplicably abandoned her family when Sam was 10-years-old.

Reed's home movies of his younger sibling provide dynamic background for the film to crescendo into an emotional knock-out that takes the viewer by surprise.

There's a lot to ponder after the credits close.

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What begins as a deeply personal coming-of-age adventure, evolves into a macro-micro study of the generational effects of abandonment.

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The narcissism that Jois inflicts on her family is laid bare in all of its ugly nature.

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25-years in the making, "Sam Now" is a terrific documentary certain to stir lively discussion among its fortunate audiences.

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It may be a bitter pill, but this brilliant movie conveys things that only documentary Cinema can capture and express.

Reed Harkness's innate sense of editorial restraint is impressive.

Not Rated. 87 mins.

5 Stars

Cozy Cole

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November 12, 2023

RUSTIN

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ColeSmithey.comMagnificent.

"Rustin" is a prime example of ensemble filmmaking that works like a charm.

Coleman Domingo gives a tour de force performance as gay political activist Bayard Rustin, advisor to Martin Luther King.

Here is a fully fleshed out representation of a complex black gay humanitarian struggling to help bring equality in a racist political and corporate American climate of hate.

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This is Coleman Domingo's moment. What a talent!

"Rustin" has a lot to say, and it says it all with supreme clarity and expediency.

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Screenwriters Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black (screenwriter on "Milk") did their homework, and it shows.

This film's pacing and editing is exquisite.

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"Rustin" is all substance, with appropriate '60s era style.

Supporting turns from Chris Rock and Jeffrey Wright pop with serious intentionality.

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This is a perfect movie to go in knowing nothing about it.

Director George Wolfe hits another one out of the park on the heels of his perfect "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

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Smart of Netflix to do a theatrical release before "Rustin" goes to streaming. I saw it at the Paris cinema on 58th Street.

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This movie will take you by surprise.

Rated PG-13. 106 mins.

5 Stars

Cozy Cole

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November 05, 2023

NIGHT GAMES — SHOCKTOBER!

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

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Thanks a lot acorns!

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ColeSmithey.comMai Zetterling began her film career acting in Ingmar Bergman's "Torment" (1944), before switching from acting to directing after moving from Sweden to London to pursue her craft.

With "Night Games" (1966), which she co-wrote with her then husband, British novelist David Hughes, Mai Zetterling matches Bergman's filmic sophistication on every level of filmic storytelling.

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This is filmmaking at its finest.

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This thoroughly original work of social satire delves into the heart of childhood traumas, while taking sharp aim at '60s era European sensibilities around free-love and the narcissistic values of the bourgeoisie. 

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Jan (Keve Hjelm) brings his fiancée Mariana (Lena Brundin) to his childhood home, a wealthy mansion estate full of horrific memories and rich furnishings. Jan indoctrinates Mariana into his debauched upbringing. Flashback sequences detail the atrocious actions of Jan's mentally unstable mother Irene (Ingrid Thulin).

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Freud's oedipal complex takes center stage in Jan's ambitious attempt at reconciling sins of the mother by annihilating all that her sexual abuse and wealth had created.

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Jörgen Lindström, the young actor from Ingmar Bergman's "The Silence," and "Persona," is the film's empathetic center as Jan's boyhood version.

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"Night Games" retains its ability to shock viewers after over 50 years due to Mai Zetterling's intuitive ability to dig equally into the male and female psyche, while keeping a pure artistic metaphoric vision. This is the gift of liberation that Mai Zetterling gives her audience.

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At last Jan and Mariana are set free to grow their relationship in fresh soil.

Amen.

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Side note: If I'm not mistaken, "Night Games" is John Waters's favorite film!

Not Rated. 105 mins.

5 Stars THE BLOOD OF DRACULA THE BLOOD OF DRACULA ColeSmithey.com THE BLOOD OF DRACULA THE BLOOD OF DRACULA

Cozy Cole

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